Chicken Drama- My Thoughts on the Chick-Fil-A Saga

Am I the only one who feels this has all gotten a bit out of hand?


It all started when Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy told a Baptist newspaper that his company operated on "biblical principles" and were supportive of the biblical definition of the family unit. What followed was a huge uproar from same-sex activists who saw Cathy's comments as hate speech filled with discrimination. 


I've watched as everyone has argued on social media, through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and even television news coverage. It's like a snowball rolling down the hill. First the comments were made, then there was the negative reaction to them, then people decided they wanted to boycott the restaurant with mayors of Chicago and Boston both openly saying that they didn't want any more of the popular chain popping up in their cities. Facebook groups were created called, "Support Chick-Fil-A", and then the real whopper came yesterday when I heard that there will also be a "Same Sex Kiss Day" where people will meet across the country and kiss a partner of the same sex on a Chick-Fil-A restaurant property. 


My thoughts are as follows..


Really?


First of all, what Cathy voiced was his viewpoint. The issue of gay marriage is just that, an issue or a topic. When a topic is discussed such as abortion, gun control, legalization of marijuana or anything else, people will have different viewpoints on the topic. 


What the gay community wants is tolerance, and I understand that, even though I don't support or agree with their position, I will tolerate it. I will not hate them, or say anything hateful about or to them because they have a human right to an opinion even though it may differ with my own. If asked to vote on said issue I would follow my opinions and make my choice based on what I believe. Part of being a respective part of society is that you respect each other's rights to individual opinions. 


I do think we should see the same courtesy for people who are on the other side of the issue as well. Where is the tolerance from the gay community? I'm a little confused as to how you can ask for tolerance, even demand it, but then refuse to give it. 


All this whole thing seems to have done to me is divide our country more. We are even more at each other's throats due to our differences of opinion. That is all we ever do as a country- disagree with one another and then claim that the disagreeing party is stupid, intolerant, prudish, close minded, or flat out wrong.


When did it become wrong to disagree? 


That is one of the things that makes life beautiful is that not everyone is just like you or me.  


Honestly, I don't even want to go out to the "Support Chick-Fil-A" day, because I just feel like that adds fuel to the fire. Hypes up the "us and them" mentality. That we have to go support on this day and we have to go attack for our rights on this day! All it does is divide us  as a people more and more.


I say have your opinions about Gay marriage. Take your stand. If questioned what you believe, feel free to tell. However, if someone doesn't agree with you, don't take up arms against them, instead respond with peace, compassion, and acceptance for them as a person. 


No one deserves to be rejected even if we don't agree with how they live their lives. 


What do you think?
Tell me about it in the comments below.. 

Atheists Don't Exist

"Functional Saviors Ain't Hip, They're a Real Waste" - Trip Lee


When I first heard that line in Trip Lee's song "New Dreams", I understood it, but not fully. Then I watched some of Tim Keller teaching about Idols. He referenced a commencement speech that an atheist had given. During the speech, the man said that there really is no such thing as an atheist (this really upset the atheist community!!), that we all serve some sort of God. Whether we choose to acknowledge a divine creator or not, we all wake up every day and worship something.

Take a minute and think of what you worship in your life. What is your God? What is the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning? When you succeed in it, you feel accomplished. When you fail in it, you feel devastated, and feel like you have no meaning. What thing in your life, if lost, would completely devastate you, and erase all meaning from your life?

It could be your children, your spouse, your career, the pursuit of success or fame. It could really be anything. Your parents approval, having material wealth, and the list goes on and on. All of these things are idols. They are "functional saviors". Things we give our hearts over to and beg them to fill us. We look for meaning in these things that weren't designed to give us meaning. The only problem with these functional saviors is that they never actually save us! If we are looking for our husband to save us, he may for a little while. He may make us feel loved and accepted for a short amount of time, but what if he leaves you for a younger woman? Your whole world would be over because your savior had just deemed you unworthy of love and affection and you would probably agree with him. What if you put your hope in gaining success? "If I just get promoted, I'll finally be loved and accepted.When I'm the boss, I'll feel like I'm worth something!"


What if that never happens? What then? Will you live your whole life feeling unworthy?

There is only one savior

one thing

that can make you whole.

I'm not talking about religion. There are numerous religions that will try to convince you to join them then leave you feeling worse than before because you aren't as righteous as they think you should be. All major religions put an emphasis on living a moral life, living a life of good works, THEN you will be rewarded by their god's favor.

Only one god

one savior

says, I'll take you, just as you are.

Just as you are you are worthy, lovely, and wonderful, because I said so.

One god, thought you were worth it to send his son to live a human life and die a human death on a cross for you. We are all hopeless without a savior. We will find something to save us, even if it is the wrong thing. However, if we use these "functional saviors", we eventually find ourselves empty again.

Let me give you an example of some of the functional saviors I've tried to use in my life.

Drugs

Love (Men)

Career

All may give you a temporary good feeling, but they just can't fill you. No matter how great they are, they just won't last forever..

Except the savior on the cross.

You see the cross means everything to a christian. It's more than just a charm to wear around your neck and if you don't get it, then you don't get God.

Jesus came to show us God. To show how he really feels about us. He doesn't see us how we see ourselves. He sees us as his dearly loved children, if only we would believe him and turn from our sins. The sins that hurt us and leave us wounded. He wants us to leave those, trust him, and believe what he says about us in his word. That we are accepted, loved, and destined for more. He payed the ultimate price so you could live the ultimate life and be his forever. Never to have your heart hurt by a functional savior again.

He's in the business of healing hearts and changing lives.

Doubting Thomas- Doubting Me

John 20 (NLT)


The Resurrection
20 Early on Sunday morning,[a] while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

16 “Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 That Sunday evening[b] the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

I have always loved this story because I can relate to it.

 In so many places, The Bible describes situations that perfectly mirror our lives today. Take the disciples for example; ordinary men from humble beginnings who desired more. They risked everything to follow the one they believed in. This Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God, the Messiah, he was different than anyone else they had ever met. He sent demons out of people who were possessed, he loved the unlovable and even gave sight to the blind. Think how difficult it must have been to see their master, teacher, messiah hanging on a cross? someone they had talked with and walked with; Their saving grace; Their hope- defeated by evil and hanging on a cross; or so they thought. It took faith to be Jesus' disciple and it took an enormous amount of faith to believe Mary's claims that she had seen the risen Jesus Christ. Faith. recurring theme over and over. We miss it in todays day and age. Sin and its effects on our world have made us hopeless cynics who don't see faith as an essential ingredient to life. We have faith, but in all the wrong things. Lets read the scripture.


Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin),[c] was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”



Other people are telling Thomas, "We've seen him, He is alive!!" Look at Thomas's response, "Unless I see the nail wounds in his hands." Unless I see, unless I touch. 

Is there faith there? I don't see it. 

That's how a lot of us live our lives. Only if I see God, only if I can touch God will I believe. We don't realize that he has been touching us all along. The light of Jesus, new life, freedom from sin and darkness(you know darkness- the pain, rejection, hopelessness that creeps in), it has been accessible to us all along through The Bible- God's word. To go from walking in darkness, (insecurity, doubt, feelings of low self worth, hopelessness) to walking in light (freedom knowing you are God's child and are made right with him, not through your good deeds, but simply because you believe in Jesus's death and resurrection as a gift) is ready and available to anyone who has FAITH. 

I like how the passage ends. Throughout the bible it is hammered home, have faith, have faith, you must have faith. It's impossible to please God without faith, faith, faith, and more faith. Never does it say, God will show himself to you in a physical form and then you will know him. Nor does it say you will ask God to poof in front of you and then he will. There is something to the concept of believing in what you can not see that gives you the blessing of Jesus. It's like he knew that there would come a time when people would not see him. They would still need to believe. Why would he have said that in verse 29 if he didn't know that a time would come when we would need faith.

The time is now and what we need is faith. Faith that there is a God and faith that the bible is his word, is truth, and is the only way to a real peace and happiness that won't let us down. There are numerous reasons to believe and have faith. Don't be a cynic or a "Doubting Thomas" and miss out on what a faith in Jesus has to offer you. It's worth it to explore.

I Know He Watches Me

Why should I feel discouraged?
Why should the shadows come?
Why should my heart feel lonely?
And long for heaven and home?

When Jesus is my portion.
A constant friend is he
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know he watches over me

His eye is on the sparrow
And I know he watches me

I sing because I'm happy
I sing because I'm free

His eye is on the sparrow
And I know
he watches me.

As I grow in my knowledge and relationship with Jesus, these words ring ever more true. The only hope for my soul and my heart is found in Jesus.

His word speaks truth and love into a world where there is darkness and pain. Why should I feel discouraged? Why should I weep and feel disheartened when tough times come? Jesus is my portion; my daily bread. A constant friend who loves at all times, heals, restores, forgives, comforts and guides is he. If he watches even the birds, how much more will he watch over me?

I'm so thankful for THE TRUTH of God's word.